


Energy Readings

by Antares



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Aliens Make Them Do It, First Time, M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:03:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares/pseuds/Antares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McKay persuades Sheppard to visit a power facility -</p>
            </blockquote>





	Energy Readings

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks for Astra and Cimmie for their wonderful beta job!

We’ve been on this planet for three days now. Three pleasant days even I have to admit – but not loudly and not to Sheppard. Nice weather, delicious and abundant food and lots of interesting things to do. Hunting parties for Ronon and Teyla, sailing trips for the Colonel and visits to all sorts of universities, laboratories and meetings with scientists for me. But the most important point wasn’t included in the Grand Tour.

“We are leaving tomorrow and I haven’t had a chance to study their power facility,” I complain to Colonel Sheppard for the umpteenth time. “It must be really impressive if they are able to heat the whole town area with it. I have to see it!”

Sheppard gives me his standard answer while he lounges on the sofa and continues to nibble on the peanut-like nuts. “I know, McKay. But …”

I stare at the tiny monitor of the ancient device and my index finger follows admiringly the blue curve of the readings. If I can’t persuade him with words perhaps a little optical demonstration can do it. I turn the scanner in his direction.

“You see these fascinating energy spikes? I’d give my right arm to see what’s causing them.” The moment these words leave my mouth I know they were too ambiguous for Sheppard to let them pass uncommented.

And right so! “Your right arm?” Sheppard teases. “You’re sure you…”

I interrupt him before he can continue. “You know what I mean, Colonel!” He’s playing the dumb ass again – how I hate that! Hey, I mean the man is Mensa-material!

I jump to my feet, make the three steps to where Sheppard is sitting and show the small scanner into his hand. “Look at these readings and tell me you’re not dying to find out what’s causing them.” I glare expectantly at Sheppard.

“Dying? You’re actually in a very morbid mood, Rodney”, Sheppard takes me once again literally, and with a sneer he snatches the device from my hand. My fingers are tingling! Sometimes I’d really like to take drastic measures to wipe that smirk off his face.

He studies the screen for a long moment then he concedes in a long drawn-out way: “It’s really interesting. Not the readings of a Naquadah reactor, are they?” 

“No. Nothing I’ve seen so far. I think we absolutely should…” I try again.

“No. You know, the Prime Minister always refused to show us. Very, very politely - but nevertheless he made it absolutely clear that it is off-limits for us.”

“They are always so damn friendly!” I hope I don’t whine but it’s so exasperating. Their friendliness and smiling and head bowing could easily rival with Teyla’s. 

But on the other hand there’s an underlying strictness and formality to this whole society. No spontaneous outbursts, no unguarded excitement, no temper flares. In a way it’s very soothing but after three days I’m beginning to feel a little … uh…constricted. Nothing better than a clearing thunderstorm from time to time.

As if Sheppard could read my thoughts he answers, “Think of Kavanagh never bitching, Zelenka never fighting with you…You’d be bored to death within a week!” He laughs.

Before I can reply, he turns the display so that I can watch the sudden increase and decrease in the power readings with him. “Woah! Look at this!”

“You see?” I try hard not to bounce like a ball. “I told you! With an energy source like that we could power Atlantis AND the defence weapons for years. The best is, I can’t detect any harmful radiation, no gamma rays, no x-rays, nothing. And it must be here in the vicinity. Colonel, it’s our last day here – we really should have a look!” I plead with him.

“And jeopardize the whole trade negotiations?”

“It’s worth the risk.” I sense that Sheppard’s firm resolution is faltering and I press further. “You saw more energy within the last five minutes than we have in all the ZPMs we dispose of. Think of the possibilities… We have to find out! Elizabeth would authorize it.” I’m certain. Fighting off the Wraith is her first priority and she is more and more inclined to bend the strict rules and high moral standards the longer we stay in the Pegasus Galaxy. She would even be ready to sacrifice a treaty if it means to get her hands on an impressive, perhaps unlimited power source. 

“It’s near by. We sneak in, have a look and return to our room before someone finds out.” It’s never that easy, I’m well aware of that. But Sheppard will never let me go on my own so I have to persuade him.

Finally, the capitulation. “Okay, one look. But we’ll take nothing with us, no probe and no sample. No touching, no fiddling around, no turning on or switching off of whatever we encounter. Deal?”

“I’m not six years old, Colonel!” What is he thinking?

“But you are as excited as a six year old,” Sheppard states laughingly while I eagerly gather my equipment. It’s not worth an answer.

\---------------------------------------------------------

The corridors aren’t heavily guarded because we are already in the inner part of the palace. So, with a little strategic advancing, retreating and hiding we are able to make quick progress in the general direction to where the readings get stronger and stronger.

We bypass a control room with only two bored people monitoring all sorts of computer screens and displays when we come to another door.

“The readings are coming from here.” We make sure we’re alone and open another unguarded door. We enter a huge hall; all the walls are massive rock. It’s hot and very steamy in here and suddenly I know why we’ll never be able to use this sort of energy - it’s geothermal!

“The energy spikes I detected were the inconstant bubble of the hot water or hot magma that powers this station,” I explain, although Sheppard probably already drew the same conclusions. It’s strange but talking and giving explanations placates me. “The reactors that change this type of energy to another type – i.e. electricity - must be nearby. But they will be useless for us,” I sigh. “Even if they are very sophisticated we can’t use them.”

This is so unfair! Finally we meet a technically advanced society and they use a technology that is worthless for us! I close the now useless scanner with more force than necessary.

“Let’s go then, Rodney.” Sheppard touches my elbow while I’m still staring angrily into the thick fog filling the great hall up to the ceiling.

At this moment the door we came through opens slowly and two persons enter. For one second I fear that they detected us but fortunately another wave of hot steam bubbles up and blurs the sight effectively. The Colonel strengthens his grip on my elbow and pulls me into the opposite direction. That hurts - I have really delicate nerve-endings there - and was really unnecessary because I had the same idea only one second later! I’m not that eager to be found here in this hall and explain all the `whys´ and `hows´ – even if a little chat with one of the engineers would certainly be interesting.

There are more doors on this side of the hall but a quick check reveals that nearly all of them are shut, and we don’t have the time to break them. But our good luck continues and the next one opens. It’s dark in there and the light of our flashlights reveals a middle sized room with more computers but fortunately without technicians.

“Must be some sort of auxiliary power station,” I venture and examine with great interest the computers.

In the meantime Sheppard has found another door and calls me softly: “Rodney, over here!”

The adjacent room is some sort of storage room and it’s very unlikely that someone will search for us here. It looks really abandoned but it’s clean, so no danger of spiders or rats trying to climb into my clothes. I’m still inspecting our surroundings - shelves, two desks, a whole lot of sealed boxes, when I hear a definite noise from the other room. I catch Sheppard’s look and his tense shoulders tell me he heard it also. Crap!

I frantically look around for a hiding place when for the second time in ten minutes I’m being pulled by my elbow. Sheppard opted for the long, heavy curtain, THE classical hiding place in bad comedies. But before I can tell him, that the desk would have been the better choice, two men enter the room. They close the door by turning the key – why didn’t we think of that? – and switch on a small light. It’s still half dark in the room but with utter astonishment I see that one of them is the Prime Minister! What the hell…?

Before I can betray our whereabouts I feel Sheppard’s hand close over my mouth. He’s standing right behind me and peering over my shoulder. He must have anticipated my astonishment in seeing the Prime Minister and … yes, that’s the Secretary of State!

Oh no! We stumbled upon a secret state conspiracy! Or why else would they meet in this godforsaken storage room? There must be a lot of nice offices in this palace! They’re certainly going to kill us, because that’s what you do with unwanted witnesses. I’ve seen enough espionage films to know such things. I’d like to bang my head against a wall. One more item on the steadily growing list of galaxy-wide unfairness!

“You’re sure nobody followed us?” the Secretary asks, looking around nervously. “I was under the impression…”

I hold my breath and I feel Sheppard do the same. 

“If someone asks we are doing a routine inspection”, the Prime Minister laughs. He is wearing a fur lined coat which he spreads on the floor. Then he beckons the other man to come nearer. He pulls him into a tight embrace and begins nuzzling on his ear. “Nobody suspects us.” He whispers and kisses the unresisting Secretary who responds wholeheartedly.

For heaven’s sake! That’s even worse than a conspiracy! That’s … that’s…madness! This must be strictly forbidden in this society. Why else would they meet in this barren room? And we are eye-witnesses!

They begin to undress each other speedily and with each kiss and each part of nakedness revealed it gets more unpleasant. We are not only witnessing something that was never meant to be known by anybody, we are also intruding on this very private moment. I’d die of shame if someone could watch me in a moment like this. Not that there have been many moments like this, none after coming to Atlantis, to tell the truth, and that’s more than a year now. So that’s only hypothetically – but nevertheless. I so wish we would have made our presence known earlier! That would have been awkward but this is downright embarrassing. I only hope they’ll never find out!

At the same time I can’t tear my eyes from the Secretary’s fingers. He’s kneeling before the other man now and loosens the fasteners on the Prime Minister’s trousers. He pulls them down and bends forward to kiss the other man’s cock. His hands knead the buttocks while he trails his tongue sensuously over the engorged flesh, licking and nibbling, leaving a clearly visible trace of saliva. His long fingers caress the backside of the Prime Minister and glide teasingly lower and lower, ghost over the crack and disappear for second to continue with the teasing.

“Not so fast,” the Prime Minister complains breathlessly and pulls the Secretary with him onto the fur. They are both naked now and for a while they are doing nothing else than cling together in a tight embrace, caressing and murmuring endearments I can’t understand but which make them laugh out loud from time to time.

After the fast undressing this is a moment of peace, of respite. Stolen minutes in an otherwise strictly planned day. That’s when I understand that this is more than just sex for them, or otherwise they would be already doing it like rabbits. This is also about being together, feeling the other person, savouring. 

The sheer eroticism of the situation creeps up on me. I notice that my breath becomes heavier and at first I think, it is Sheppard’s hand covering my mouth. But with a start I become aware that that’s only partially true because his thumb is under my chin now. `Caressing´ I’d say in the absence of a better word.

Sheppard. Me.

That means the situation is affecting him more than he would admit. And it makes me painfully aware of our position, so similar to a tight embrace. Sheppard’s other hand is lying on my hip pressing me close against him. His chin is on my shoulder and I can feel his rapid breath directly on my cheek. His lips are only millimetres away from my ear. If I concentrate a little bit I can feel his heart beating in the pulse of his carotid. We are so near. I can smell him. His shampoo, his aftershave and something else. Excitement? Fear?

Before our eyes the two men glide down on the fur in a tangle of limbs, fight a moment laughingly for supremacy until the Prime Minister lies down on his back and the Secretary covers his body with his own. Kissing all the time, rubbing hot erections together. Moaning.

That’s the moment when I feel something pressing against my ass that … that has to be Sheppard’s erection! I close my eyes to better concentrate but there’s no mistake and I’m too old for the stale joke with the weapon. To be absolutely sure I press backwards a tiny little bit and get Sheppard’s sharp intake of breath as a confirmation. Ohmygod! I … I like it. I feel flattered. Who wouldn’t? Mr. Beautiful is taking an interest in me - that’s just weird. But for a change, the good kind of weird.

I suddenly hope its interest in me and not only a mechanical reaction to the scene unfolding before us, because rapidly our private erotic home-video gets hardcore. The Prime Minister spreads his legs and his lover opens a little jar and coats his fingers. I know what will follow and I’m not sure I’m ready for that! At least not with Sheppard being able to monitor closely all the parameters that give away the state of my arousal: increased heartbeat, a deep flush on my neck and my cheeks, augmented perspiration and, if he moves his hand only five centimetres to the left, the unmistakable bulge in my trousers. Because if I’m wrong and he’s only turned on by the naked men and not by me that will be too much information for him.

While I’m still trying to find out if I can move without making a noise, a short bleep disturbs the quasi-silence of the room. I try to sort out in my mind if I know this noise, and then realization hits me in the face. It’s the ancient device, the scanner, announcing that it is going into stand-by modus to save energy! “Bleep.” Thank you very much!

As if in slow-motion I see the Prime Minister and the Secretary turn their heads into our direction, and the Secretary jumps to his feet. My head, that usually produces tons of brilliant, inspired plans, is totally empty and I can’t come up with a way out. Therefore I’m unresisting when Sheppard turns me in his arms, grabs me forcefully, whispers “Play along!” and presses his mouth on mine, the moment the Secretary tears apart the curtain.

“You?!” The young man points a sharp dagger directly to Sheppard’s throat. “What are you doing here?”

Out of the blue I know what Sheppard wanted to prove with that kiss. “Oh, come on,” I reply, “We’re doing what you’re doing. Only, you’re faster.” I can’t resist and let my hand glide under Sheppard’s t-shirt at the waist. My reward is an amused look from dark eyes.

In the meantime the Prime Minister has advanced, still naked but a more deadly weapon in his hand. He points it at my head and orders the Secretary: “Unarm them.”

The other man complies, we are not resisting, and two minutes later our pistols and knives and the scanner are lying on the floor.

“Hands behind your head and on your knees,” is the Prime Minister’s next command.

I see Sheppard gulping but after a short moment of hesitation he goes down on his knees and I follow. Low profile then. I wish Ronon and Teyla would take this moment to burst through the door but nothing like that happens.

“You know, I have to kill you,” the Prime Minister says, but as he hasn’t done it yet - and murder committed in the heat of the moment would have been a really good excuse - I hope it’s a good sign.

“No, you don’t,” Sheppard replies and I admire his calmness. “It’s true that we do know now that you have a relationship, but you know the same about us. I’d say we’re quits. You don’t want it to be public knowledge and as I’m in the military the same goes for me.”

I don’t know how serious Sheppard is at this moment. Is it all only for the benefit of the Prime Minister or is it also a small warning in my direction not take this too seriously?

“You forget one important detail, you’ve seen us naked, in a very compromising situation while we have only your word for it,“ the Minister replies. I’ve to admit that rings true.

“We can undress, if you wish,” Sheppard answers. He turns to me. “Rodney!” 

Wait, wait, wait! We can’t undress! I mean that’s… that’s like in one of those nightmares when I’m suddenly naked in the labs and everyone is giggling! I’m…

Sheppard already drags his t-shirt over his head and fumbles with the button of his trousers. He repeats “Rodney, your t-shirt!”

I try hard not to hyperventilate and pull the shirt from my trousers. Very, very unwillingly I push it up and over my head. In the moment when my head reappears from the blue fabric, Sheppard jumps up. The next second he holds a sharp knife menacingly to the Prime Minister’s throat. He must have concealed it somewhere in his clothes. Now the whole undressing makes sense. What better way to get down your hands?

“If you shoot McKay, I’ll stab you,” he warns the Premier in an ice-cold voice. And that reminds me that I still have a weapon pointed directly at my temple.

“Then I’ll kill you,” intervenes the Secretary promptly who aims one of our weapons at the Colonel.

Come on, we could solve this problem with a little bit of common sense, couldn’t we? There’s no need for four corpses. That’s really exaggerated.

That seems to be also Sheppards opinion because he says “That won’t be necessary. You have to trust me, that we won’t betray you. Think of all the rumours when they find us here. The two of you naked and us half-naked.”

He summons up my thoughts nicely. But with the next sentence red warning lights are flashing in my mind.

“To show you our sincerity I’ll put my weapon down now.” Uh, uh, John? What about the weapon currently directed at my head? But Sheppard doesn’t hear my silent pleading and puts down his knife and shows his open hands to convince them he’s unarmed. Bravo.

“Trust?” The Secretary spits out. “You watched us, you saw all those intimate gestures, while we… we…”

He stutters and I’m relieved to see that there are others who don’t find the right words when they are nervous. And he’s very nervous if his brandishing with the gun is any indication.

“Do you really undress if I demand it?” he inquires, glaring menacingly.

Oh no, no, no, no! I hope John will give the right answer to that! The worst is, I don’t dare to get up because I worry they might take it wrong and so I’m still the only one kneeling on the floor which isn’t too good for my inferiority complex.

“If you wish.”

Shit! 

“You’ll touch him in intimate places?”

Excuse me? John!! I’m freaking out here!

“Rodney may touch ME if it’s really necessary.”

What? I force myself to shut my mouth and look at Sheppard. The same smirk as always. But right now, I don’t want to wipe it off his face. Instead I try a lopsided grin myself – very awkwardly, I fear. He thinks I need to be rescued! My smile broadens.

“Enough!” The Prime Minister intervenes resolutely.

“Only one more thing – I want to apologize for our behaviour.” Oh yes, Sheppard is so much more the diplomat than I am. Even if I’d thought of it I don’t know if I could’ve done it. “We shouldn’t have disregarded your orders and we shouldn’t have watched you for so long. Even if it was very sexy.” Sheppard tries to elevate the mood and he’s successful.

The Premier Minister lowers his weapon. “We should all dress now.”

I agree with him wholeheartedly and immediately make a grab for my t-shirt.

In the end everything is in the open, because the Secretary of State recognizes the readings on the scanner for what they are and Sheppard doesn’t lie to them. He confesses that he authorized me to search for the power central which turned out to be absolutely useless to us. Before they can get too upset, he continues and tells them how we watched them enter the great hall and retreated to the storage room, and how we found out that the room wasn’t as abandoned as we thought. The only thing Sheppard is very vague about is the nature of our “relationship”. But his undeniable charm is working nonetheless. After we’ve given them our solemn promise not to reveal anything they escort us back to our room.

On the threshold to our room I also murmur a short apology which is accepted with a formal bowing of the head. Back to normal then. Back to the rules. How sad.

“I’m so sorry we spoiled your evening!” I blurt out. “Very sorry!”

For the first time the Premier Minister smiles and simply says “Thank you.” Another bow, I clumsily mimic the movement – and then Sheppard and I are alone. 

I go to the box which contains our equipment, open it and dump the scanner. “We should toss that damn thing into the next black hole. It only causes trouble,” I declare scornfully. 

“I think it gave us some interesting results,” Sheppard answers with the grin of a sphinx.

“Yeah?” I’m astonished.

“Well, it taught me something new about energy readings and attractive forces.”

My mouth is totally dry but I have to repeat, “Attractive forces?”

Sheppard is now behind me and puts his arm around my waist. He presses his body to mine and I can feel his warmth. “Yes. Energy spikes, increasing and decreasing frequencies, throbbing, swallowing, friction, vibrations, pulsations…”

John’s voice gets darker and more seductive with every word. He found the only type of romantic whispering to make me hard within the blink of an eye. I let my head fall back on his shoulder and sigh, “Keep going. Or even better, why don’t you show me?”

“Physics in action? Sounds like a plan to me!”

 

 

\----------THE END-------

 

©Antares, January 2006

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Energiesignaturen (Energy Readings)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4946524) by [Antares](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares/pseuds/Antares)




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